Dallas Cowboys Blog

Will Maurice Jones-Drew break free vs. Cowboys run D?

Jacksonville’s Maurice Jones-Drew is the NFL’s 11th leading rusher with 510 yards, but he is the only back in the top 21 to not average more than 4 yards a carry.

Jones-Drew is averaging 3.8 yards per carry on the season with 135 attempts. He’s also scored only once this year. The unsettled quarterback play has hurt Jones-Drew.

“It’s all about respect. Teams are going eight, nine man boxes against us,” Jones-Drew said. “They’ve been doing that since I’ve been here. They’re really trying to force us to beat them in the air and we want to continue to try to run the ball as well. So we’ve just got to be able to break off some runs, keep them more intact with the running game so we can beat them over the top and get our receivers open. We’ve got to be able to establish that running game and hopefully that big game is coming.”

Maybe the Cowboys will provide him with the right tonic. They allowed 200 rushing yards to the Giants, led by Ahmad Bradshaw’s 126 yards. Tennessee’s Chris Johnson had 131 yards and Houston’s Arien Foster had 106 yards.

Jones-Drew, however, sees the Cowboys’ run defense more as the unit that held Adrian Peterson, Clinton Portis and Matt Forte in check.

“I think they’ve played some different schemes week after week,” Jones-Drew said. “That’s kind of what’s been holding us back. We’ve been going against different schemes, a different type of 3-4 team, a different type of 4-3 team each week. That’s hart to adjust to. I was watching the Monday night game. They had Ahmad Bradshaw stopped. He would kind of break a tackle here or there and Brandon Jacobs as well. But they were in the right position, so they pose some problems obviously.”